American Destiny

Marcella Luiso Flanagan remembers every detail of July 3, 1948, when she and her family boarded a former military transport ship to cross the Atlantic back to Italy, and the months that followed, like it was yesterday. They spent five unforgettable months in postwar Italy. They were joyous yet filled with uncertainty as her parents struggled to reconcile the country they once knew with the one they found. The devastation of war, and the devaluation of the lira, forced them to make the heart-wrenching decision to return to America. They left Italy on December 1, 1948, and went back to their home in Westchester, New York. Those five short months would change the course of Marcella’s life forever, and in American Destiny – with the help of her niece – she recalls how her family navigated the journey along with its painful decisions.